Parody Is The Lowest Form of Comedy...

So, I've been re-reading Kushiel's Dart, since I just finished the last book in the series, Kushiel's Mercy, and wanted to go back and see what was different at the start of Carey's career. You can see, in the evolution of Elua and his companions, Carey growing in ease with her own mythos; at the beginning, it was flat enough to have the quality of a D&D game, but by the end she had developed enormous respect for the canon she had developed.

As I was reading them, I remembered an jesting trilogy that I had proposed. For some reason it's been bugging me all week:

Michael Verreuil is an Vespuccian design wunderkind whose edgy, often racy, somewhat dark sensibilities have informed advertising campaigns for wines, smart phones, video games, soda pop, even high-end plumbing fixtures and clothing accessories.

Now he's been given the assignment of his life, and the sneaking suspicion that someone in his agency wants him to fail. The Parry motor company is reviving the Dodge Dart, but only in Europe, and it needs to do well. Michael is the man to do it, and he's been sent to be the talent at the agency's newest offices, in the Ancient and revered City of Elua.

Michael dives into the history of the City and digs up the ancient stories about Elua and his followers, about the traditions of Mont Nuit and the Night Blooming Flowers, and more importantly, the ancient symbols and rites of Elua, Namaah... and Kushiel. In his advertising designs, Michael has edged up to offensiveness with politics and with sex, and a new, potent mix of sex, politics, religion, and history promises to be explosive. Suddenly, the controversy puts the names of Elua and his companions on every tongue in the City.

Unfortunately for Michael, the old, long-ignored gods of Terra d'Ange, frustration is their least favorite emotion. And in matters of love, Elua is not a kind or gentle god.